“Once one sees the false as false, one cannot continue supporting it.”—Veronica Pelicaric, “Movement of Noncooperation”
Christian leadership in the future is not a leadership of power and control, but a leadership of powerlessness and humility in which the suffering servant of God, Jesus Christ, is made manifest. I, obviously, am not speaking about a psychologically weak leadership in which the Christian leader is simply the passive victim of the manipulations of their milieu. No, I am speaking of a leadership in which power is constantly abandoned in favor of love. It is a true spiritual leadership. Powerlessness and humility in the spiritual life do not refer to people who have no spine and who let everyone else make decisions for them. They refer to people who are so deeply in love with Jesus that they are ready to follow him wherever he guides them, always trusting that, with him, they will find life and find it abundantly.
Verse of the day
The cry of the Israelites has now come to me; I have also seen how the Egyptians oppress them. Now go, I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.
– Exodus 3:9-10
Voice of the day
We follow a God who hates tyranny; who continually leads people in exodus journeys in defiance of authoritarianism.
– Rev. Jennifer Butler
Prayer of the day
God of justice, hear the cries of the oppressed and send us to confront tyranny, bringing freedom to those in need.
The many names from Abraham to Jesus are certainly not saints. They are names of men and women who struggled hard with the powers of evil, sometimes more successfully than others, and who have experienced love, hatred, joy, pain, reward, and punishment, like ourselves. It is these men and women who form the story in which God himself wanted to become a part. God, so it seems, inserted himself in our tiresome and often exhausting journey and became a fellow traveler. When Jesus joined the sad and deeply disappointed disciples on the road to Emmaus and opened their eyes so that they could see what was happening, he revealed what it means that God is a God with us.
He recognized with authentic realism that anyone who permits another to determine the quality of his inner life gives into the hands of the other the keys to his destiny. — Jesus and the Disinherited, p. 19
We must especially beware of that small group of selfish men who would clip the wings of the American eagle in order to feather their own nests. — Four Freedoms Speech, January 1941
“To honor the sacred is to create conditions in which nourishment, sustenance, habitat, knowledge, freedom, and beauty can thrive. To honor the sacred is to make love possible. To this we dedicate our curiosity, our will, our courage, our silences, and our voices. To this we dedicate our lives.”—Starhawk, The Spiral Dance
The most insidious, divisive, and wounding power is the power used in the service of God. The number of people who “have been wounded by religion” overwhelms me. An unfriendly or judgmental word by a minister or priest, a critical remark in church about a certain lifestyle, a refusal to welcome people at the table, an absence during an illness or death, and countless other hurts often remain longer in people’s memories than other more world-like rejections. Thousands of separated and divorced men and women, numerous gay and lesbian people, and all of the homeless people who felt unwelcome in the houses of worship of their brothers and sisters in the human family have turned away from God because they experienced the use of power when they expected an expression of love.
I am thankful that my denomination, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), is a part of this
Christ-followers are standing up to the Administration… Paula White, et. al. you are NOT the voice of those of us who condemn christian nationalism and stand with the prophet Micah who wrote:
He has told you, O mortal, what is good;
and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God? (Micah 6:8, New Revised Standard Version)
Read the text at the below link. There are LOTS of faith groups who are speaking out.
A politically committed spirituality contends against wrong without becoming wrongly contentious. It confronts national self-righteousness without personal self-righteousness. It cherishes God’s creation; it serves the poor; it is not interested in the might of a nation but in the goodness of its people. — Credo, p. 69
Pastor Michael Moore's Blog 